Another new visitor

Finally I’ve seen a Great tit!

About time too me thinks. It wasn’t actually in our garden although it was going through the hedge/bushes in my neighbours so it’s not like it was a million miles away. I’m guessing it’s ignoring our feeders in favour of the live food to be had in the hedges, I’m hopeful that once the babies have fledged we’ll get the adults.

Is it just me or do Greenfinches leave their fledglings to fend for themselves? I’m yet to see an adult actually feeding the babies I have, instead they always sit on top of the station and then fly down onto the ground (not quite worked the whole feeder thing out) I see them regularly, perhaps more so than the parents!

Had some cutie little Sparrow fluffers this morning, got some feeding shots in my neighbours garden. As well as a cute juvenile that’s still got its gape but obviously doesn’t need feeding anymore as I often see it on the feeder. So nice to have a range of ages.

Also, the Goldfinch number has gone up again and we’re now at 4, all adults so I await plenty of babies J as well them probably being my most frequent visitors!

Still haven’t seen BB, Starling or Bluetit babies. However I think the Starlings have given up and I think the BB’s were attacked by a Magpie just earlier – I do hope it didn’t manage to get a youngster. Both adults still seemed to be accounted for. After the Sparrow wing I found last week, I’d rather not have a BB gone too.

Next pay day I hope to get a ground feeder to collect all the dropped sunflower hearts and another pole to hang a feeder on away from the main station.

Oh yes, and I’ve got two Guinea Pigs coming for a 2 week holiday… Could be interesting as one is ill and I may have to administer antibiotics for it. Well, if I can give it to a Gerbil/Jird I’m sure I can manage a Guinea Piggie…

Sighting #3

I saw Mr/s Foxy again yesterday!

Only this time it was far more exciting than before... This time it was in daylight [:

Well, as much daylight as 9pm on a very gloomy and stormy evening allows. Apparently s/he had something in their mouth, I rush for the camera, turned it on, zoomed in and pressed to focus... Only I had manual focus on!!!!


Arrrghhhhhhh, so I missed the shot, as by the time I'd switched to automatic, it'd gone.

]:

I hope it wasn't a baby bird.

It gives me hope of youngsters though if they were active so early. Considering I've never seen them once since I've moved there have been a lot of sightings over the last few days. This time my boyfriend and brother got to see it too (they probably thought I was making it up)

Foxes

Well, another late night and another sighting. Only this time there were two!

So I'm still hopeful for cubs in the next month or so... :)

After researching into Fox mating (lovely!) I found out that they will have mated before we moved in, so that will explain why I've not heard any calls. However, the cubs should be venturing out around now... So I'm still a bit doubtful that they have any.

Might have to leave eggs out for them... See if they get eaten (although, I'm not going to know whether a Fox or Magpie/Crow ate it.

Ha, so much for the cunning plan!

Bank Holiday

It sounds like it must just be us 'up north' that have the best weather for the bank holiday...

Blue skies, sunshine.. Shame about the high winds and occasional large grey cloud. No rain though luckily and even when it does get dull it's still warm outside.

So today we planted the rest of the Hawthorn as they're top heavy in their little pots, also planted the Jasmine and put up trelis for it. Oh and also planted a cordyline as it's pot bound and it constantly being blown over now in the wind.

Other general gardenish type jobs too.

Had a rather late night last night... When I went up I could see the sun beginning to rise - sky was getting light... So I sat and stared for a while as it gradually got lighter.

Along came Mr/s Foxy! Yay, finally seen it! :)

So this morning my neighbour was out in his garden, I asked to confirm that the large mound is infact a fox den. Apparently last year they had 2 cubs! No signs this year though sadly, other than the occasional egg shell left in the garden.

Spring!

I absolutely adore Spring, I love the feeling of life after the dull months of winter

Some of what I spend the majority of my time doing:

It's just a shame the pictures are somewhat pixellated in this...

Not bad at all

Well, it’s been a rather eventful week on the Bird front.

With the appearance of Goldfinches, a few days later we also got some Bullfinches! and today I saw a Robin.

Wheee.

So my list of birds now looks like:

Blue Tit
Coal Tit
Long Tailed Tit
Sparrow
Starling
Collared Dove
Woodpigeon
Feral pigeon
Goldfinch
Greenfinch
Bullfinch
Robin
Dunnock
Magpie
Blackbird
Crow (never seen land in the garden, but they are around)
Swift (again, never seen actually landing, but they are overhead)
Wren
Blackcap

Not bad at all, considering we’ve lived here a month and a bit.

The Blue tits have pretty much disappeared, but can be heard calling, I’m wondering whether it’s because of the number of Sparrows. Although I do have a clinger feeder for them, the sparrows don’t often use it so it generally sees very little activity… So I guess they’re busy finding live food off the rose bushes and such around. Maybe I ought to direct them to my Rhubarb, there was a great big fat caterpillar on it last week… Probably bigger than a blue tit! Lol

So my regular visitors are in order:

Sparrow
Dunnock
Goldfinch
Greenfinch
Blackbird
Bullfinch
Bluetit

They keep on coming!

Yay, so very excited today.

This morning I was watching out of the window and along came a Goldfinch!

It didn't go to the feeder, but I assume was checking out the area? So later on we had a group of Greenfinches visit and along came the goldie and joined in!

3 Greens and one Gold [:

Naturally I had the camera at the ready, uploaded the images ready to sort them out and post... Only for some unknown reason they didn't all download and I deleted them off the camera!!!
So furious, I so hope they stick around so I can get more photos in the future.
The pair have been hanging around all day and I'm not sure if I've simply never noticed before because I assumed they were the resident sparrows flying around the rooftops or if they are indeed new, checking out the area or passing through.

Oh well, at least I have some photos of them on the rooftops, even if they are a mere speck on the photo :(

N00bie

And a Coal Tit!

Yay!
[:

Not managed to get a feeder yet, apparently as it's spring/summer the birds no longer need feeding, even though they have chicks to feed... yeah, makes loads of sense.

So I'm trying again tomorrow to find one, not very impressed thus far.

And now for some natural pesticide photos:

Excitement

Ok, so not so exciting for anyone else, but it's certainly made my week!

We've recently been getting a lone Green finch on the feeder, and until yesterday I hadn't realised that it was actually a female and not a male!

Yesterday she brought with her at least 4 others, possibly more, so looks like I'm running out for some larger feeders!

Hehehe, no wonder I was thinking they looked a bit boring, I just hadn't seen the males. And they're lovely. I do hope they visit regularly. So far I've seen her at least 3 times a day, and that's just in the evening when I get home [:

I've never had Green Finches, anywhere. Completely new to me, so it's nice to finally have an unknown bird.

Photos to follow another time, once I finally have the internet at home and can upload the millions of photos I've been taking.